Cracked claw

[Sid]

Mum noticed our boar had been limping and on inspection we found this, which came off fairly easily when he pulled his paw out of my hand.

It was wrapped around his claw (you can see the indent in the middle where his claw was) on inspection his claw has a crack on it, and this lump seems to look like the same material a claw is (it does have some hay trapped in it).

Can anyone tell us what it is?

He is walking fine now it has gone and the crack is past where it would bleed.

 

[5Cs_Piggies]

That is very interesting. I’ve only seen something similar to it with my first two piggies. They had come from a neglectful home and had been deficient in vitamin C for around two years (yikes!). Both had a type of strange growth on their paw pads. The vet was able to clip them and they haven’t shown up since I’ve been providing lots of kale, red pepper, and vitamin C drops in their water. Vitamin deficiency might also be why the nail’s cracked as the nail grows brittle as time goes on. Has your pig had access to vitamin C lately? As long as it isn’t bleeding or causing pain, I don’t think you need to worry about it.

 

[Lady Kelly]

It looks like it could have been a spur which is a hard dead piece of skin that grows off the pads. They are usually harmless but can be trimmed if they are likely to be caught. They are attached to live skin though so please check for any sore looking spot or open wound and keep the pad clean until it has healed as there is a risk of infection with it. The spur may grow back and can be trimmed with nail clippers (taking care not to hit live skin) if it gets to a stage it may catch again

 

[Sid]

Thank you both of you! Vit C is no problem for them, she gives them daily kale and carrots, some cucumber, pepper ect, the list she’s telling me goes on but I’m not typing it all haha!

Just about to check his pads now though

 

[Sid]

His pads look fine too! The only thing out of the ordinary is the crack line.